Napier Girls, Wellington College Claim Schools Swimming Honours

Napier Girls High School has won the inaugural girls’ trophy at the third State New Zealand Secondary School Swimming Championships in Hamilton today.

The Hawke’s Bay school were dominant throughout the three day meet at Waterworld in Te Rapa to finish 200 points ahead of second placed Baradene College, while Pukekohe High School rounded out the placegetters with 370 points.

Wellington College successfully defended the trophy in the boys’ competition for the third year in a row but finished just two points ahead of Auckland Grammar School. It was a tightly fought battle between the two leading schools with Hamilton Boys High School nearly 300 points behind in third place.

Thirteen year old Jordan Wilson from Glendowie College was the top individual performer of the meet with an outstanding eight gold medals. Last year’s top performer, Yeonsu Lee (Westlake Girls) was not far behind with seven gold medals.

Para swimmers took part in the event for the first time with Nikita Howarth (Cambridge High School), a gold medallist at the recent IPC World Championships, the top female swimmer with seven gold, one silver and one bronze medal. Daniel Gaualofa (Kerikeri College) topped the male medal tally with eight gold and three silver medals.

Both Swimming New Zealand and Paralympics New Zealand were delighted with the initiative and while their swims did not count towards the overall schools medal tally, the organisers are keen to develop a format to fully include them in the overall points next year.

A further 14 individual meet records fell during the last session to take the competition total to 65. Record breakers included Elzivor Brown (Rangitoto), Bobbi Gichard (Napier Girls), Simone Lusby (Baradene), Mackenzie Lambert (Pukekohe), Rebekah Bradley (Epson Girls), Jordan Wilson (Glendowie), Maddie Mason (Napier Girls), Emma Hanley (St Kentigern), Joshua Taylor-Martin (Campion), Julian Weir (New Plymouth Boys), Vanessa Ouwehand (Te Awamutu), Yeonsu Lee (Westlake Girls), Paige Schendelaar-Kemp (Pakuranga) and Chelsea Ouwehand (Te Awamutu).

In the 200m mixed medley relay that concluded the competition, Avondale College won the 15 and under and Saint Kentigern College won the 16 and over, both in meet records. Ten meet records were broken in relay events during the competition.

NZ Sec Schools